Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Salvia jamensis cultivar Sunsaruki.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Salvia plant, botanically known as Salvia jamensis, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Sunsarukixe2x80x99.
The new Salvia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Yokaichi-shi, Shiga, Japan. The objective of the breeding program was to create new compact Salvia cultivars with bushy growth habit and numerous flowers with attractive coloration.
The new Salvia originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventors in April, 1998 of a proprietary Salvia selection identified as code number 97S34-2, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Salvia jamensis cultivar La Luna, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Salvia was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled environment in Yokaichi-shi, Shiga, Japan.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings and divisions taken at Yokaichi-shi, Shiga, Japan, since September, 2000, has shown that the unique features of this new Salvia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Sunsaruki have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and light intensity without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Sunsarukixe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Sunsarukixe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Salvia cultivar:
1. Upright and relatively compact plant habit.
2. Freely basal branching, dense and bushy plant form.
3. Freely flowering habit.
4. Pale yellow-colored flowers.
5. Tolerant to high and low temperatures.
Plants of the new Salvia differ from plants of the parents primarily in flower color as plants of the female parent selection have red purple-colored flowers and plants of the male parent, the cultivar La Luna, have yellow green-colored flowers.
Plants of the new Salvia differ from plants of the Salvia cultivars Sunsarupin, U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/716,049, and Sunsaruoro, U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/716,056 primarily in flower color.
Plants of the new Salvia can be compared to plants of the Salvia cultivar Orchestra Red, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Yokaichi-shi, Shiga, Japan, plants of the new Salvia differed from plants of the cultivar Orchestra Red in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Salvia were more compact than plants of the cultivar Orchestra Red.
2. Plants of the new Salvia had shorter internodes and were bushier than plants of the cultivar Orchestra Red.
3. Plants of the new Salvia had shorter leaves than plants of the cultivar Orchestra Red.
4. Plants of the new Salvia had larger flowers than plants of the cultivar Orchestra Red.
5. Plants of the new Salvia had more flowers per lateral stem than plants of the cultivar Orchestra Red.
6. Plants of the new Salvia and the cultivar Orchestra Red differed in flower color as plants of the cultivar Orchestra Red had red-colored flowers.
7. Plants of the new Salvia were tolerant to lower temperatures than plants of the cultivar Orchesta Red.